TN: NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 163eme (France, Champagne)

  • NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 163eme - France, Champagne (12/8/2018)
    Drinking wonderfully well. Complex and expressive nose of baked apple, toast, brioche and brown spices. The palate is rich and full with some gentle nuttiness. It is powerful with a finish that is laden with chalk and a big squeeze of lemon.

Posted from CellarTracker

This Champagne out of Magnum last year might be the best Champagne experience I’ve had to date.

I really like this champagne too, definitely underrated. Haven’t heard much about the 162; you’d think it’d be good with 06 base.

I think this is my first time hearing about an underrated Krug. Always amazing in my eyes.

Probably largely a result of all the hoopla regarding the eme 164. Fair or not, wines are often judged by comparison.

Agreed. Had this next to 165 and 166 and the 163 is more complex with aged notes. Maybe the best drinking grand cuvée from 160-166 right now.

is it my imagination or are they banging out successive renditions more rapidly now? Seems like 163-6 happened in less than a year?

164 came out summer of 2017. So yeah 3 releases in less than 2 years. Great marketing change on their end

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Brad has said production levels were down significantly with the 164 and 165 which may account for the rapid progession of releases. Does anyone know which year will be the next vintage release?

Yes, 164 and 165 combined are slightly less than the quantity of a typical single release and 163 and 166 are a little higher in quantity than a typical release. This has led to a case where in a 15-18 month period, you saw the tail end of the 163, the 164 & 165, and the start of the 166 (speaking only of 750 mL formats for all releases). It actually isn’t that odd to find 3-4 different Grande Cuvee releases floating around in the market depending on location, supply, demand, etc…, but the new labeling of each release makes it easy to see what is out there and that is a good thing.